Mary Gray Peck (October 21, 1867January 11, 1957) was an American journalist, educator, suffragist, and clubwoman. She was interested in economic and industrial problems of women, and investigated labor conditions in Europe and the United States. Born in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, she studied at

Elmira College Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in a ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

, and

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

before becoming an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Minnesota. Later, she became associated with the

General Federation of Women's Clubs The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of over 3,000 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Many of its activities ...

College Equal Suffrage League The College Equal Suffrage League (CESL) was an American woman suffrage organization founded in 1900 by Maud Wood Park and Inez Haynes Irwin (''nee'' Gillmore), as a way to attract younger Americans to the women's rights movement. The League spurred ...

National American Woman Suffrage Association The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was an organization formed on February 18, 1890, to advocate in favor of women's suffrage in the United States. It was created by the merger of two existing organizations, the National ...

Women's Trade Union League The Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) (1903–1950) was a U.S. organization of both working class and more well-off women to support the efforts of women to organize labor unions and to eliminate sweatshop conditions. The WTUL played an important ...

Woman Suffrage Party The Woman Suffrage Party (WSP) was a New York city political organization dedicated to women's suffrage. It was founded in New York by Carrie Chapman Catt at the Convention of Disfranchised Women in 1909. WSP called itself "a political union of exi ...

, and the Modern Language Association. Peck was a delegate at the

Sixth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Sixth Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance was held in June 1911 in Stockholm, Sweden. It was led by the organization's president, Carrie Chapman Catt. The proceedings were inaugurated on Sunday, 11 June in the Gustaf Vasa Chur ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, 1911.

Early years and education

Mary Gray Peck was born in Seneca Castle, Ontario County, New York, October 21, 1867. She was a daughter of Henry J. and Mary Diantha (Gray) Peck. Peck graduated from Elmira College, (BA degree, 1889). She did post-graduate work in

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...

at the University of Minnesota. At University of Cambridge, England, she did graduate work in

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

and

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

Career

Peck served as Assistant Professor of English, at the University of Minnesota, for eight years. She resigned in 1909 to go into

suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...

work and journalism. She served as chair of the Drama Sub-Committee of the Committee on Literature and Library Extension in the

. She was a Charter member of the

, University of Minnesota. Peck served as Headquarters secretary of the

, 1909–10, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was a Fraternal delegate from the

, 1911. She was the Press chair of Ohio Woman Suffrage Association during the campaign of 1912 for the woman suffrage amendment to the new Constitution. Peck served as special correspondent from the International Suffrage Congress, 1911, for the ''

Boston Evening Transcript The ''Boston Evening Transcript'' was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts, published from July 24, 1830, to April 30, 1941. Beginnings ''The Transcript'' was founded in 1830 by Henry Dutton and James Wentworth of the firm of D ...

'' and other papers. As a journalist, she contributed to various industrial and academic periodicals, magazines, and newspapers research articles, original investigations, fiction and verse. In religion, she was liberal. Her affiliations included membership in

Gamma Phi Beta Gamma Phi Beta (, also known as GPhi or Gamma Phi) is an international college sorority. It was founded in Syracuse University in 1874, and was the first of the Greek organizations to call itself a sorority. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Man ...

sorority;Kappa Chapter Directory, ''The Crescent of Gamma Phi Beta'', June 1905. National Women's Trade Union League;

; Geneva Political Equality Club;

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Women's City Club; American Woman Suffrage Association; Modern Language Association; University of Minnesota Alumna Association; and the Drama League of America. Peck died January 11, 1957, at

Jenkintown, Pennsylvania Jenkintown is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is approximately 10 miles (16 km) north of Center City Philadelphia. History The community was named for William Jenkins, a Welsh pioneer settler. Jenkintown is located just ...

, in the home of a niece, Mrs. James F. Koehler, having resided there since 1953. She was buried at Whitney Cemetery, Seneca.

Selected works

* ''Germelshausen; a drama in four acts by M.G. Peck, Carl Schlenker, Frances B. Potter.'', 1904 * ''The rise of the woman suffrage party'', 1911 * ''Outline study course in modern drama beginning with the 19th century'', 1912 * ''Women in the making of America'', 1940 * ''

Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt (; January 9, 1859 Fowler, p. 3 – March 9, 1947) was an American women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. Catt ...

: a biography'', 1944

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peck, Mary Gray 1867 births 1957 deaths 20th-century American journalists American suffragists People from Ontario County, New York University of Minnesota alumni University of Minnesota faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge Clubwomen Elmira College alumni Women's Trade Union League people 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American biographers American women biographers